It Wasn't Supposed to be Like This

by Sophie Mansur-Gupte

What if the life you built wasn’t the life you chose—and the truth was locked inside your own forgotten memories?

💔 It Wasn’t Supposed to Be Like ThisA novel about betrayal, memory, motherhood—and the love we fight for even when we no longer recognize it.

Amelia Rai had everything she was supposed to want.
A husband. A son. A home filled with laughter.
But when a car accident steals her memory, she wakes up to a life she doesn’t recognize—and a man she no longer trusts.

Jason was once her everything.
Now he’s just a stranger who flinches when she asks about the past.
As flashes of memory return, so does the ache in her chest. A woman’s perfume. A phone left unlocked. A truth that was buried for good reason.

Because the life Amelia built?
It’s one she chose to forget.
And remembering might destroy her all over again.

Told in alternating perspectives, It Wasn’t Supposed to Be Like This is a heart-wrenching novel about secrets, survival, and second chances.

For readers who love Colleen Hoover, Taylor Jenkins Reid, and books that make you feel everything.

Genres: Second Chance

223 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 6, 2025

Reviews

[Mojo_Mama · Rating 1 out of 5]

So the author reported my review and it was removed.
I’ll keep it short and to the point this time.

I read this little book and it’s shit.

[Tmstprc · Rating 2 out of 5]

Liked the concept… cheating husband, wife knows, car accident… she has amnesia. How will he fix this?

He doesn’t, he plays happy family until she remembers everything. He’s weak and pathetic. It wasn’t a fling, it was a 2 year affair while she was pregnant and postpartum.

They do all the right things to repair their relationship, but I still felt she deserved better.

[Tina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weird ending. Not sure if there is another book to follow it up.

I read books that provide angst. I thought since this was story about cheating that it would be. Sadly it was not. I didn't feel the gut punch of her finding out about her husband cheating, to what happened after. The story is told in pieces because she was in a car wreck and lost her memory.

Questions not answered - what happened with the other woman. Why did she say she was pregnant with an ultra sound but not pregnant. Did she just fade into the sunset? She seemed pretty upset when he went to break it off and then she shows up later at his office saying she is pregnant. Then nothing else about her.

When did the MMC find out the FMC was in the hospital from the accident since he didn't have his phone.

Cheating by MMC that happened for 2 years.

[LM♥️ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Is this AI written?

There will be spoilers ahead. FYI
There are a lot of reasons I dislike this book and It also feels like AI written work. It’s very choppy and inconsistent while also being redundant if that’s possible. For the first half basically every chapter starts and ends the same. You see the same conversations happen multiple times. She goes to leave him, unpacks her bag and decides to stay only to leave him in the next chapter. The timelines are nonexistent. He supposedly had an affair for two years, while FMC was pregnant and after their baby was born. She found out when the baby was small enough to still be in a bassinet (so under 6 months) but they’re still talking like she just found when their son is 2 1/2? Then In the later chapters he says the affair started when FMC was going through postpartum and was distant and cold? How? There are so many inconsistencies through this book. I won’t be supporting this author in the future as I am completely against AI written books and this feels AI.

[Suzee · Rating 1 out of 5]

for my daughters and sisters and mothers

“So that’s it? You screw me, lie to your wife, and now you get to go home and play the victim?”

Why was this book such a trigger? It’s because we are conditioned to accept, swallow the pain, do the work of understanding and forgiveness so everyone can move and be okay.

He was allowed in the end to do just this. Draw an equivalency to explain his actions and ask for forgiveness. He cheated for 2 years!!! Somehow bygones are bygones and he was just lost and trying but felt lost, hurt, and discounted while she was parenting a new child. But it sounds like he was already out there even before? Timeline aside, he gets to apologize, accept some responsibility, but accept appropriate victimhood as well.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amnesia = h was in a car accident and loses her memory for a bit

Cheating = H was having an affair with co-worker who made him feel "seen" all while his wife was struggling with life and all it's stress

Grovel = H played the victim more often than not in the story and the h took up so much responsibility for the H's actions that I just wanted to shake her and tell her to stop making excuses for him and blaming herself. The grovel was more of the h working to make it all work while dealing with amnesia and flashbacks of betrayal. The H was just a sad sack that gave puppy dog eyes and never owned up to anything until he is cornered and even then it's a woe is me.

I liked the book, but had a hard time with timeline inconsistencies (see other reviews for more info) and I was not a fan of the h taking so much of the blame/responsibility for the man-child she was married to.

[Readers Choice · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you enjoy romantic suspense thrillers, this is a book you won’t want to miss. The story follows Amelia, who wakes up in St. Joseph’s hospital just before her 30th birthday. Sitting by her side is a charming man named Jason, who claims to be her husband. But Amelia has no memory of her adult life. The last thing she recalls is being fifteen, sitting in a high school classroom with a cute boy behind her—someone who looks remarkably like Jason.

Amelia is shocked to learn she has a husband, a two-and-a-half-year-old son named Leo, a career, a home, and that her mother has passed away. As Jason shows her old photos, Amelia feels like she’s looking at someone else’s life—a beautiful story that doesn’t feel like her own. Yet, as time passes, she finds herself slowly falling in love with Jason and Leo all over again. She has no memory of Jason’s past affair. Could this be his second chance? And will Amelia ever get her memories back?

The author's writing style is engaging and smooth, and the cover design is eye-catching. The fast-paced plot kept me on the edge of my seat—I simply couldn’t put the book down and ended up binge-reading it over a weekend. There wasn’t a single dull moment.

[Megan Bloomberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great Bones

First. Thank you to the author for showing its ok to stay and fight. And that walking away isn't always the best choice.
The plot was great. I felt for the characters. My issue was it wasn't very fluid. I was lost a few times on if it was present time or not. Leo was speaking like a 2 year old one chapter then a few later was speaking in full sentences and cracking jokes. I felt the time like was fuzzy.
Overall great book but maybe a little editing to make things clearer would have helped.

[Frederick Nunez · Rating 5 out of 5]

it wasn’t supposed to be like this

The novel was heartbreaking and tragic, it focuses on a marriage that the husband has an affair with a coworker. The wife has a car accident and has amnesia.

[Kiwi · Rating 4 out of 5]

unpopular opinion.. I loved it! I live for the drama.. the complete breakdowns.. ow drama.. ow herself isn't a big character in the present.. the memories, yes.

[TheBookishWife · Rating 2 out of 5]

What potential this one has. Regrettably, it was a hot mess. I stayed confused between the "flashbacks", 3 weeks and 2 days following accident...Gah, it was all over the place and kept repeating what was seemingly already covered.
The concept with a cheating husband, a wife that finds out, has an accident and. loses her memory. The husband decides to take advantage of her loss of memory to create a new narrative, but wife remembers and then out of nowhere, we have the wife with another man for the ending..
I read these cheating tropes for the gut punch heartache, the grovel redemption or the wronged wife gets better man where she rises like a Phoenix from the cheating assholes ashes. All I got here was confused 🤔😕 NTS: the reviews were spot on about this one .
I gave an extra star for the Audible. It actually had both make and female voice which made. it overall more bearable. Kudos for Audible.
This story could have been a 4 star read/listen with a tighter storyline and more about his cheating with ow.

[domestic_godess_reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Needs an editor

While the premise and the writing are good, the story is all over the place. Lots of inconsistencies. Forever instance one paragraph Leo is a toddler and the next he's at school. One minute he's smearing banana and the next he's wearing underwear on his head talking like a 5 year old. One part reads that Amelia went to the park, went to stay at an air b and b then later she says going to target alone is the first time she's done anything alone since Leo's birth. Lots of small inconsistencies that made for a confusing read. The story jumps all over in time making it confusing at times.

[Claudia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have so many mixed emotions about this book. On one hand, I actually really liked it — it was emotional, intense, and had so much potential. But on the other hand, it left me so frustrated and honestly kind of angry.

This is the first book in a series, and I knew going in that it involved cheating, so I was prepared for some emotional mess. The story is about John and Amelia, who’ve been together since college. It starts with Amelia waking up in the hospital after a car accident — she has amnesia and can’t remember anything. John is there by her side, telling her he’s her husband. The story is told from both their POVs, so we quickly learn that John had an affair… something Amelia obviously doesn’t remember.

And this is where the frustration really kicks in. The affair lasted two years, and he says they only slept together twice (though even that’s said in such a vague way — “technically twice” — like, what does that even mean?). The other woman, Amanda, works with him. But we never get clear answers. There’s no real timeline, no specific details about how or when things happened. Amelia’s memories slowly return, but everything is so vague. Time jumps, flashbacks, and memories all kind of blur together without any clarity.

There are things mentioned — like Amelia finding a necklace, a hoodie, earrings, and even realizing Amanda had been in her house — but we never get an explanation for any of that. How did Amanda even end up in their home? Why were her things there? It’s never explained, and that drove me insane.

From what I could piece together, Amelia found out about the affair before the accident, they went to therapy and were trying to fix things. But the night of the accident, she saw John getting into a car with Amanda, panicked, and that’s how the crash happened. And John still didn’t tell her the truth afterward — she had to remember everything on her own. That just made me so mad.

It was also heartbreaking, because you can tell Amelia really did love John. And it’s clear they were struggling even before the baby — stressed, not communicating, and just growing apart. But instead of fixing things, he went looking for attention elsewhere. It’s real, it’s raw, and honestly painful to read at times.

Despite all this, I’m definitely continuing the series because I need answers. I want to know more — about what really happened, about John’s side of things, about how they move forward (if they even do). But for this book, I’m giving it 2 stars. It had so much potential, but the lack of answers and vague storytelling really let it down. I was left with more questions than closure.

[Chronic Chihuahua · Rating 1 out of 5]

Slept On This And Woke Up Angry That He Gets To Perform Penance

It really angers me reading him have those "don't reach out" thoughts like he should have even felt that way.

If the book was honest and stopped pretending that he was mentally ill, then I would believe this was about rebuilding.

Instead, the book was entirely focused on the terrible abusive cheater who cannot say, abuse.

This angers me greatly.

Empathetic abuse is still abuse.

Not only does he need to say he was SEXIST but he also needs to say he was ABLEIST and abandon his struggling wife and son at the most difficult parts of their life.

Instead Dr Dick Head Hayes gives him every quick answer in the book.

There is one piece of advice you give an abuser who "wants to heal" and that is, "You sit and you take everything from her, for a year, and then we will come back at this later."

Nah, he gets all the easy answers so he doesn't have to emotionally stretch.

Women demonstrably suffer more mental health issues than men byt we don't fuck off on them when they are ill.

Chronic that men are allowed to pretend that they cheated because of themselves and not because they sought a doormat to cheat on.

I used to believe accountability too but once and cheater, always a cheater.

Wiggles his way out of feeling anythinf and the doctor helps him.

Constantly always about how he feels about how he cheated.

And you didn't give that pathetic letter to Amanda?

Where you blame her for his abusive choices to gaslight you then let him off the hook, but pretending otherwise?

Never seen him suffer, I seem him afraid to suffer, but not suffer.

He was able to get swoll inside another woman, repeatedly, when the body is the organ of emotion.

"Love".

Hes text book Narcissist, constantly worried about how her feelings make him feel.

And she let him near her kid.

He abandoned them both, and she lets him near her.

Nah, this isn't accountability, this is personal exceptionalism.

[Jamie Sigmundson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is about a husband and wife who are seemingly in love (it doesn’t get into their history, just that she was there for him through some difficult times and he never thought he was good enough for her). After she gets pregnant and has their baby, her husband chooses to get involved with a woman from work. The wife knows something is going on but it gaslit and thinks it just post-partum depression and the stress of a new baby. Deep down she knows something isn’t right though. She ends up in a car accident and cannot remember life after. Her husband feels aweful about what he’s done and sees this as his second chance. Her sister, though, ain’t having it 🤣. As with most things, what sits in the dark always comes into the light. He starts therapy, she starts to remember, they work really hard to make things better than they were, and become healthier, happier versions of themselves. That’s an ideal scenario. Where both parties (not just one) is willing to do WHATEVER it takes to make things better. Unfortunately, that’s not the norm. There is a small chapter, called, an alternate version, or something, and it’s from the POV of their 2 year old child, and what happens when his parents split up and he has to divide time, and cry and gets in fights at school. It’s really sad. Ideally, no one would get divorced, everyone would be happy all the time, there would be no selfishness and heartbreaks. But, it’s a story. They get their HEA.

[Shannon Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some decent bones in this book. The premise is the h wakes up after a car crash with retrograde amnesia. The H was cheating and had already been discovered by the wife, but now she doesn’t remember. So, basically, the first part of the story is her remembering, and him walking the fine line of trying not to tell her, but wanting to tell her.

There is some decent angst here, so if you’re looking for that, this might be up your alley. However, for me, the story fell flat because I didn’t feel any chemistry between the main characters. I am not actively rooting for them to get back together or even to stay together. For me, that element has to be present in any second chance redemption romance where there’s cheating.

They are also some very strange choices within the book that are boring. It’s not really my cup of tea, but again the bones are good.

2 stars

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this more. I wanted to be like wow what a story.. but I think everything I read about this book made me hype it up. It was a sad story about infidelity and the aftermath that was heartbreaking. For me it was to much of a sad story. And yes cheating and cheating like this is f-ing sad. But I didn’t really feel the happiness and journey to finding themselves being apart and getting back together. The being glued back together part was a bit lost for me, it was some chapters that I felt was more like an epilogue worthy bits…

However it wasn’t a bad story. A three star ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️ and worth the read for sure!

[Diedre · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of great truths to glean from in this one. If I needed to give someone a book on marriage counseling this would be one of them. Didn't reach a 5 star being written somewhat choppy. But the message(s) were awesome. One of them being, why is it a woman only has two choices when her man cheats on her: either leave and become the "brave" woman, or stay and become the "doormat?" That spoke volumes to me of taking every relationship, every situation as it's own. Loved the growth and soberness of the couple.

[Cindy · Rating 1 out of 5]

The timeline was mess up and I just couldn’t get pass that.

One point he has the affair while she’s pregnant and then not, it started after she had the baby. Then it has been a month since she had the crash and suddenly it’s really just a week.

I couldn’t keep reading in that mess. And then it was just i want to forgive him but I can’t but I want to but I can’t 🙄. I should leave and then I return and then, I leave again.

[Kerry · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't feel any emotion at all in this book. The words were there, as was the storyline but I wasn't able to connect with anyone in it. Where was the grovel, the angst or worse.... where was the love? Sorry to say but I won't be reading the next 2 in the series.

[Michelle Lonnee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible

Please don't waste your money like I did. The writing is awful! Repetitive to a point you get confused. I think the author was planning on going one direction then changed her mind then changed it again. If I could get a refund, I would. This is garbage!!!

[Melanie Clark · Rating 1 out of 5]

Girl, you’re so stupid for staying with him.